Defending the flag 🇺🇸

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DAILY ENERGY NEWS | 06/14/2022

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In celebration of Flag Day, Democrats are working to kneecap those who defend it.

Breaking Defense (6/13/22) reports: "Two Democratic senators plan to introduce legislation later today that would force the Defense Department to aggressively speed up efforts to adopt more environmentally friendly vehicles. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, plan to introduce the Military Vehicle Fleet Electrification Act, ambitious legislation would require 75% of non-tactical vehicles purchased by DoD to be electric or zero-emission vehicles starting at the beginning of fiscal 2023, or Oct. 1, 2022, according to text of the bill provided to Breaking Defense. 'Transitioning the military’s nontactical fleet of vehicles to electric or other zero-emission vehicles would have a significant impact on the U.S. government’s greenhouse gas emissions,' Warren said in a statement. 'This is an effective solution that helps us tackle the climate crisis and keeps the military ready for the future.' Both Warren and Hirono sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee. The proposed Senate legislation will be a companion to a House bill introduced in April by Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., the chair of the House Armed Service Committee’s Readiness subcommittee."

"The decline in fossil fuel prices over the last decade allowed people to delude themselves into thinking they were dying, as opposed to recognizing that they were symptoms of weak demand growth and oversupply. Now coal is more profitable than ever."

– Joe Weisenthal,
The Odd Lots podcast

Why would Biden rather beg the second-largest oil-producing country for oil, which happens to be run by murders and tyrants, instead of working with domestic oil producers and refiners? Biden has an uncanny ability to alienate Republicans and Democrats and still accomplish nothing.

NBC News (6/13/22) reports: "President Joe Biden will visit Saudi Arabia next month for bilateral talks and meet with the country's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as part of an itinerary that includes Israel and the West Bank, a senior administration official said. The trip comes as the president seeks to bring down rising gas prices caused in part by U.S. and European Union sanctions against Russian oil exports over its invasion of Ukraine. Biden has denied that the long-discussed visit to Saudi Arabia would primarily be aimed at getting the Saudis to pump more oil, but other U.S. officials have acknowledged that oil is an important factor. Biden will address human rights, but the visit is largely aimed at repairing relations after Biden in 2019 referred to Saudi Arabia as a “pariah” state for the brutal murder of Saudi-born journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a regime critic, administration officials have said. When Biden took office he authorized the declassification of a CIA investigation’s conclusion that the crown prince was ultimately responsible for the murder. Other big issues to be discussed on the trip include the civil war in Yemen, where the Saudis have helped achieve a cease-fire, and shared concerns about Iran’s progress in developing its nuclear program, the senior administration official said. Critics, including an organization of families of 9/11 victims, oppose Biden going to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have denied that their government had any role in the terror plot, but 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens."

More subsidies for Chinese batteries!

ABC News (6/13/22) reports: "Major automakers are asking Congress to lift the cap on how many people can receive tax credits for buying a hybrid or fully electric vehicle. Currently, the number of tax credits allowed is capped at 200,000 per company. General Motors and Tesla have already reached the cap and Toyota is close to it. In a letter to leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives on Monday, the chief executives of Ford, Toyota, GM and Stellantis asked that tax credits be extended to anyone who seeks to buy a qualified vehicle. Automakers want the cap lifted until 'the EV market is more mature,' they said, without giving a time frame. 'Eliminating the cap will incentivize consumer adoption of future electrified options and provide much-needed certainty to our customers and domestic workforce,' the CEOs wrote. The request comes as Americans find themselves financially pinched from all directions by four-decade high inflation. Energy prices have been especially bad, with the average cost for a gallon of gas in the U.S. breaching $5 this weekend, according to the auto club AAA...President Joe Biden has attempted to ensure the supply of materials needed to produce electric vehicles continues to flow as the nation transitions away from fossil fuels."

Green Luddites finally destroy the factories!

Wall Street Journal (6/13/22) reports: "For decades, European industry relied on Russia to supply low-cost oil and natural gas that kept the continent’s factories humming...Europe’s producers of chemicals, fertilizer, steel and other energy-intensive goods have come under pressure over the last eight months as tensions with Russia climbed ahead of the February invasion. Some producers are shutting down in the face of competition from factories in the U.S., the Middle East and other regions where energy costs are much lower than in Europe. Natural-gas prices are now nearly three times higher in Europe than in the U.S...Europe’s high energy costs are forecast to drag on the region’s industrial production and overall economic growth this year. Economists at the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, expect the German economy to shrink in the second quarter under pressure from high energy prices. Germany, the region’s largest economy, is also the biggest buyer of Russian natural gas. Europe’s consumers are unlikely to pick up the slack, as high energy costs are filtering through into prices across the economy, sapping their purchasing power. The phaseout of Russian supplies risks putting European industry at a long-term competitive disadvantage unless manufacturers can deploy technologies that will sharply reduce their fossil-fuel consumption. But many of these technologies, such as using wind and solar energy to power chemical factory furnaces or hydrogen to make steel, are years from becoming commercially viable and will require massive investments, executives say."

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $123.04
Natural Gas: ↓ $7.15
Gasoline: ↑ $5.01

Diesel: ↑ $5.77
Heating Oil: ↑ $442.02
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $124.57
US Rig Count: ↓ 804

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